Chapter 40: Past Memories (Part Two)

Every word out of Jiang Wu's mouth was a challenge to his medical skills.

The elderly doctor was naturally displeased, stroking his beard as he retorted, "When you brought her in here, she had more breath going out than coming in. Now that she is alive, kicking, and well, how can you say she is fine?"

"Then how do you explain why she doesn't remember anything?"

Jiang Wu gave him another nudge.

Only then did the old doctor check the young woman's pulse once more, asking her if her head hurt, if her limbs felt numb, and what memories she still retained.

His expression was warm and amiable, but the young girl answered him while repeatedly glancing sideways at Jiang Wu, who was sitting near the table.

Her look was a mix of apprehension and a desperate search for a sense of security—utterly contradictory.

Mostly, it was because Jiang Wu's carefully laid plans had fallen through, leaving her feeling frustrated and looking somewhat stern. Yet, she happened to be the very first person the girl saw upon waking up, which naturally caused the girl to feel a deep sense of reliance on her.

The final verdict was that the girl genuinely did not remember a thing.

Jiang Wu and the old physician stared at each other in dismay, while the young woman with a bandage wrapped around her head sat on the bed, stealing furtive glances at the two of them.

"It is likely temporary amnesia caused by blood stasis in the brain following a head injury. I will write a prescription for you, and there is still hope for recovery."

Jiang Wu didn't believe a word of his "hope." Thinking of something, she hurried outside without a second thought.

At this sudden movement, the girl on the bed panicked instantly. She had been leaning against the headboard, but now she sat straight up in a single motion.

Yet, having no grasp of the situation, and with her mouth opening and closing without even knowing how to address this person, she could only watch helplessly as Jiang Wu walked out the door.

The doctor hurriedly chased after her, crying out, "Hey now, where are you going?"

"My Mingzhu must be waking up about now." Jiang Wu remembered that it was time for her daughter to wake up. What mother could possibly have the leisure to bicker here now? "If she doesn't see me, she'll start crying and making a fuss."

The doctor grabbed her sleeve. "You're the one who brought this person here, you can't just run off like this."

「Liang Qian is right here, where could I possibly run off to? You treat her first."

Jiang Wu replied while quickly making her way back home.

The old doctor sighed and returned inside. Seeing the frightened and uneasy young girl, he offered a few comforting words in a gentle tone. "Don't you worry, Madam won't abandon you." As he prepared the herbal medicine, he continued, "Our Lord Liang is a good official who cherishes the people as if they were his own, and Madam is a good person, too. Look around you—among ordinary commoners, who would ever dare speak to a magistrate's wife like that?"

"They never put on airs of officialdom, which is why we can speak to them so freely."

The girl seemed to have set her mind slightly at ease, and then asked, "Where is this place?"

The doctor began to explain everything to her.

***

When Jiang Wu returned home, Mingzhu was indeed crying.

Coming back from the medical clinic, she washed her hands as she asked, "Has she been awake long?"

"Just a short while. She woke up and started crying the moment she didn't see you," a servant replied.

"She simply relies on me." As Jiang Wu said this, she felt quite pleased in her heart. But when she stepped inside, the toddlers who had just woken up were still wailing at the top of their lungs.

"Mingzhu, look, Mother is here." With a pang of heartache, Jiang Wu scooped the child up into her arms. Whether it was because she sensed her mother's presence, the child who had been crying incessantly truly stopped sobbing.

Her eye rims were still red, making her look utterly pitiful.

Heartbroken, Jiang Wu took a handkerchief from a servant and gently wiped the tears from the child's face. Guessing that she must be hungry, she proceeded to nurse her.

Held in her mother's arms and getting fed at last, the little one contentedly smacked her lips, bringing a broad smile to Jiang Wu's face.

When it came to naming the child Mingzhu, the scholar who served as her father had initially raised a slight objection, listing a pile of names he had scoured from classical poetry and prose.

Jiang Wu, however, would have none of it. If she wanted to name her Mingzhu, Mingzhu was what she would be called.

As the mother, her opinion naturally prevailed in the end.

From the very first moment she saw this child, Jiang Wu had felt a strong sense of destiny. Strangely enough, while she was pregnant, she hadn't felt any particular emotional attachment, but the moment she touched that tiny hand, a surging wave of maternal love began to overflow.

Her love was only this much, and she wanted to bestow it all entirely upon her Mingzhu, unwilling to spare even a fraction for another child, even if she were to give birth to one later.

In fact, Jiang Wu sometimes even felt afraid—afraid that if she really were to have a little boy, one day, without her even realizing it, she might be relegated to the traditional mold of motherhood.

A son is considered the heavens above.

How could she ever bear to let Mingzhu suffer such a grievance?

Fortunately, the child's father didn't care about such things, unlike those pedantic, sour scholars obsessed with the notion that "of the three unfilial acts, having no descendants is the worst."

The husband she had carefully chosen for herself was different, after all.

As Jiang Wu was thinking along these lines, she heard Liang Qian's voice coming from outside.

Mingzhu had already eaten her fill, so Jiang Wu placed her in the cradle. Just as she finished smoothing out her slightly rumpled clothes, Liang Qian stepped into the room.

"Wife." Whenever he called her wife, it was invariably accompanied by a trace of a smile.

Jiang Wu turned to look at him. The upward curve of the man's lips unreservedly conveyed his affection. He walked straight over and sat down beside her, pressing close against her. "Is Mingzhu awake?"

Though he asked about Mingzhu, his eyes were fixed entirely on his wife.

Jiang Wu caught the faint scent of alcohol on him, though it wasn't strong. Liang Qian had a poor tolerance for alcohol; if he had drunk heavily, he wouldn't be in this mildly tipsy state she saw now. "Mm."

Liang Qian took her hand. "You've had a hard time, Wife."

He said this every single day upon returning home, feeling that he was too busy outside and unable to tend properly to the household. Jiang Wu, however, paid it little mind.

"Why are you back so early today?"

"Master Wang of the county hosted a banquet. I accompanied them for a couple of cups and made an excuse to leave."

Mingzhu was chuckling in her cradle and reaching her hands out toward him; she only ever showed this fondness for him right around the time he first came home every day.

Afraid that the smell of wine on him would be too strong for her, Liang Qian didn't reach out, instead gently rocking the cradle to amuse her.

Jiang Wu had been a bit worried ever since he mentioned it. "Weren't there officials down from the prefecture? Can you just slip away like that? What if it gives people something to complain about?"

After all, he was the county magistrate here.

Liang Qian was too embarrassed to tell her what kind of games those people were playing; the scene was simply one he couldn't bear to stay in.

"It's fine, the secretary is still there. There's no telling when that will end, and I wanted to come back and see you and the child."

Jiang Wu couldn't help smiling at his words.

Aside from wanting to let the local commoners live and work in peace, Liang Qian seemed to harbor no great ambitions for official promotion, and neither did Jiang Wu.

She felt that a quiet, ordinary life like this for their family was quite wonderful.

Moreover, Liang Qian's administrative record was solid enough that people wouldn't try to sabotage him over such a trivial matter, so she stopped dwelling on it and shifted the topic to something else.

"Oh, do you know?" She thought of the young girl at the clinic. "That girl we rescued has lost her memories. This is the first time I've ever seen such a patient."

Hearing that the girl had lost her memory, Liang Qian looked somewhat surprised. "She forgot everything? She can't remember her name or anyone in her family?"

Jiang Wu shook her head. "She's only just woken up, so I haven't questioned her in detail yet, but it looks like she doesn't remember a thing."

Liang Qian looked thoughtful. "I'll make some inquiries later. If she really is some young lady of a prominent family who got lost, there ought to be some news about it."

"Not necessarily," Jiang Wu disagreed. "Look at how she was dressed in men's clothing; it's entirely possible she ran away from home herself. In cases like that, wealthy families might not necessarily make a fuss about it. You'd better inquire in secret."

Liang Qian nodded repeatedly. "My wife always thinks things through most thoroughly."

Mentioning this reminded Jiang Wu that she had indeed abandoned a newly awakened girl right there at the clinic. Therefore, after settling Mingzhu down, she went back to check on the clinic.

The moment the young girl saw her, her eyes lit up considerably, wearing a look that seemed terrified of being abandoned—which inevitably softened Jiang Wu's heart.

Come to think of it, though she didn't know the exact age, the two of them probably weren't all that far apart in years. Yet someone who has lost her memory naturally appears exceptionally youthful, so Jiang Wu had simply fallen into the habit of calling her "the young girl."

She helped the girl take a bath and change into a clean set of clothes. Once washed, the girl looked even more delicate and lovely. Even Jiang Wu's own garments, which were of quite decent quality, looked slightly incongruous when worn on her.

Jiang Wu looked her up and down.

No matter how she looked at it, she was clearly someone raised in the lap of luxury by her family. Her own Mingzhu would have to be raised just like this in the future. Look at this delicate skin—she mustn't be allowed to do a single bit of heavy labor. And as for how this girl managed to run away, she would always support whatever Mingzhu wanted to do in the future, so she probably wouldn't run away from home like this girl, right?

If she did, Jiang Wu would be heartbroken to death.

"Madam," the girl said, feeling uneasy under her scrutiny.

Seeing her now, Jiang Wu felt as though she were looking at her own future daughter, and her demeanor grew much kinder. "I shouldn't be much older than you. You can just call me Sister Jiang."

Calling her "Madam, Madam"—the girl didn't look like she was fated to be a maidservant anyway. Also, she couldn't keep calling her "the young girl" forever. Jiang Wu's mind began to spin.

"Since you've forgotten your own name, let me pick one for you."

The girl nodded, her bright eyes filled with anticipation.

Amidst her eager waiting, Jiang Wu thought of a result: "Cuicui, how does that sound?"

What a fine name, with such a wonderful implication.

However, the light that had been flashing in the girl's eyes just moments before instantly went out. Her expression grew solemn as she shook her head very earnestly: "No."

"Ah? Why not?"

"It's too tacky."

Jiang Wu found this immensely curious. "You don't even have your memories, and yet you know what's tacky?"

The girl nodded again. Probably still a bit afraid of Jiang Wu, her gaze darted around until it landed on the medicine chest nearby.

"Baishu."

Hm? Jiang Wu followed her gaze and saw that name written on the exterior of the medicine chest not far away.

"I want to be called that."

The young girl—no, Baishu—said firmly, trying her hardest to make Jiang Wu abandon the "Cuicui" idea.

Fine, Jiang Wu thought to herself. Since she insisted on choosing for herself, and she wasn't her own daughter anyway, she could be called whatever she liked. So she nodded: "Baishu, you just stay here and properly recover from your injuries. Once you're healed, you'll come home with me."

Baishu was actually quite terrified. Here, she knew no one and remembered nothing. The only thing she could hold onto was the person right in front of her.

Yet she already knew that she and this person had merely crossed paths by chance, that she had been rescued by her, and what qualification did she have to cling to her?

Her eye rims turned slightly red. "Thank you," she said, torn between fear and gratitude. "Even though we don't even know each other."

"You can't really put it that way," Jiang Wu said, her heart softening once more as her tone grew gentle again. "Liang Qian is the magistrate here. Since you set foot in Tonghuai, you became his... oh no, our responsibility. Don't worry too much. Until you remember where your home is, I won't abandon you."

Only after receiving this guarantee from her did Baishu completely set her mind at ease.

As for Liang Qian, who had suddenly been made a "father," he only learned about this development after she had already moved in.

He put down his chopsticks. "Are you planning to make her a maid?"

"Does she look like someone who can be a maid to you?"

The two of them looked together at the young woman who was delicately and meticulously picking half the vegetables out of her bowl.

Liang Qian's expression turned grave. "Wife, if you bring a young and beautiful woman like this into our home without employing her as a maid, once word gets out, my reputation for integrity will be ruined."

Though Baishu didn't entirely understand what they were discussing, she could at least roughly gather that it concerned her staying or leaving. Frightened, she didn't dare pick at the vegetables anymore; she simply clamped down on the celery she had spent half the day isolating and shoved it straight into her mouth.

It was a sight that made Jiang Wu feel both sympathetic and amused, so she hammered the matter down with a final decision.

"My virtuous husband's reputation exists for me to hear about. As long as I know the truth, that's enough."

Seeing her resolve, Liang Qian offered a wry smile and said no more. In truth, he had merely been afraid that if unfavorable rumors really spread, it might give someone a pretext to exploit loopholes and cause trouble.

Never mind; his wife's happiness was what mattered most.

However, Jiang Wu was ready to settle accounts. She grabbed hold of Liang Qian's hand. "Young and beautiful? Liang Qian, you really are a scholar," she applied a bit of extra pressure with her grip, "you certainly know how to choose your words."

Liang Qian made no attempt to dodge despite being pinched, and hurriedly begged for mercy, "Wife, I was merely reminding you. In my eyes, there is no beauty or ugliness—there is only my wife and everyone else."

Jiang Wu wasn't genuinely angry, of course; after a couple of soft huffs, the matter passed.

Opposite them, Baishu finally let out a breath of relief, realizing she would be allowed to stay after all.